September 2023 Monthly Update (Patreon)

Septembers tend to be rough months for me, and this year has been no exception. I seem to be struggling mentally, and I'm doing my best to sort it out and get through it.

In the meantime, I've rewritten a few scenes of my book, and I got the word count down to roughly 105,000 words-- I'll have to wait until I get some feedback from my beta reader before figuring out what else to cut out. I'd done a draft of my pitch too. I might try to post some previews in the future.

I'm working on a short story, the first part of which I've posted! I'm also starting up teaching a Thesis Writing MFA class, which is a lot of extra work, but there might be enough material to make one new MFA lesson post in the future.

I went to a Tegan and Sara concert, which was fun, they banter a lot during their concert and it's cute. I'm going to a Janelle Monae concert with my partner next Monday! I might have pics for next month's update! This weekend is Pride in my town and the local comic con- I don't have anyone to accompany me to Pride, but I'll probably check out the comic con.

In terms of reading, I haven't been as active since I'm struggling to concentrate. I read The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour graphic novel and it was really cute and fun, with a little tragic backstory and time looping for spice! And the Otherside Picnic manga was solid as usual. I also read the novel I Keep My Exoskeletons To Myself by Marisa Crane. It was a pretty intriguing novel set in a society where people who commit crimes are assigned second shadows without a real trial and stripped of a lot of a basic rights, often for simply defending themselves. The protagonist's wife dies giving birth to their child, who is automatically assigned a second shadow for the "crime" of causing her mother's death, which is obviously just considered a crime because the protagonist already has a second shadow and because her moms were a lesbian couple. It was a solid book, though the ending was a little too neat and convenient.

The protagonist's child also always seemed way older than she was, it was like she came out of the womb as a holier-than-thou teenager. Especially egregious was when the child was in third grade and she and her two friends were able to steal some weed, and skip school to smoke it, all while planning an elaborate protest and saying things like "I was expecting something more riveting". Hilariously, the protagonist was a "cool mom" about the whole thing and was like "give me a hit of that joint", which again, makes sense if you catch your sixteen year old smoking weed (and, uh, don't supposedly live in a dystopian society where any misdemeanor could mean death or other horrors, but the book didn't really seem to want to confront that and treated the characters as invincible) but not your eight year old. I talked about it a little on Tumblr because it baffled me so much, but didn't namedrop it because I didn't want to bash a decent queer book, but I can shittalk all I want here. Despite all these issues, the book was enjoyable and interesting enough to finish, which is saying a lot because I've been having trouble focusing and dropped a lot of books lately.

Show-wise, the anime season's almost over! I've really enjoyed Undead Murder Farce, a great mystery and surprisingly gay. My Happy Marriage was a sweet Cinderella story with great animation and I've been weirdly enjoying Reborn as a Vending Machine-- yes, it's literally a guy who's been isekai'd and reborn as a vending machine- which is dumb fun with occasional eye-rolling elements, but it really is incredible how many problems are solved with vending machine stuff. He even turns into a tampon and pad vending machine to help his friend on her period, which at least makes him a better bro than 99% of isekai boys. Soaring Sky Precure continues to be top tier Precure.

I want to give Bang Dream My Go the college try, since it's supposed to get good at three eps and is supposedly about mentally ill (likely subtextual) lesbians, but it's hard to get through those first eps.

I've got so much I want to watch next season it's overwhelming. I'm in Love With the Villainess and Spy x Family season 2 are a lock, but I'm also really interested in Frieren, Pluto, Shy, the adult Precure anime and Apothecary Diaries. Also tentatively interested in Stardust Telepath, Tearmoon Empire (the first couple novels were cute), (VERY tentatively) Vampire Princess...and perhaps fatally interested in 100 Girlfriends because I follow someone blogging about it and it seems so beyond absurd it might be entertaining.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to narrow it down and save some for next season most likely. Wish me luck!

In other show news, I've been loving Fionna and Cake, which is giving me all the toxic yuri, depressed millennial and wacky adventure vibes I could ever want (you need some familiarity with Adventure Time to enjoy it, it's very much a sequel). I'm also enjoying the live-action One Piece, which is significantly less intimidating to get into than the original manga and anime (I read a few arcs back in the day but always got overwhelmed eventually)...also I don't have to wince at how the women are drawn.

And finally, I've been playing a lot of the Pokemon Scarvi DLC to calm my nerves. It's been soothing and I finally have a decent outfit to wear in-game at least.

That's all for now! See you next month!